Labour facing dangerous by-election

LABOUR faces another difficult ‘red wall’ by-election after a Coronation Street actress-turned-MP was elected as the first West Yorkshire mayor last night.

Tracy Brabin will now stand down as MP for Batley and Spen, prompting a hotly contested race for the seat.

She held the constituency with a majority of only 3,525 over the Tories in 2019, meaning it will be a nail-biter. The Conservatives overturned a Labour majority of 3,595 in last week’s Hartlepool byelection, winning by 6,940 votes. Miss Brabin will now have powers over transport, crime and planning in a region of 2.3million people that includes Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield.

She was named the inaugural West Yorkshire mayor with 310,923 votes (59.8 per cent) after second preference ballots were counted. The Conservative candidate was runner-up with 209,137 votes (40.2 per cent).

Miss Brabin, who played Tricia Armstrong in Coronation Street, became an MP in a 2016 by-election after the murder of Jo Cox. A vote to pick a new MP is expected in July.

After her election as Mayor, Miss Brabin wrote on Twitter: ‘We did it! I’m proud to be the first West Yorkshire metro mayor and I’m incredibly humbled and grateful for every single vote.’